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WWE filed a motion with the United States District Court in Connecticut on 4/4, asking the court to reconsider their previous ruling that portions of the lawsuit brought against them by Vito Lo Grasso and Evan Singleton could move forward.
In the motion, WWE requested that the court reconsider the ruling that Lo Grasso and Singleton have a plausible, factual case because Singleton could not have been harmed by WWE's "alleged fraud by omission."
The claim is that Singleton was hurt because WWE chose not to tell talents of the potential long-term harm of head trauma and allowed talents to continue to suffer harm. In the case of Singleton, WWE argued, he was injured taking a chokeslam in the ring in September 2012 in WWE developmental. WWE advised him to rest and take time off and referred him to a neurologist. Even after Singleton was medically cleared by an "independent neurologist", WWE's own medical team refused to clear him to enter the ring again and that Singleton never trained again inside a WWE ring.
WWE also noted that Singleton's claims that he was not advised of the dangers of head trauma are simply not true, as Dr. Joseph Maroon, the head of WWE's Wellness Policy, gave a presentation in August 2012 to developmental talents in Florida, where Singleton was training at the time, "on the importance of telling medical staff if talent suspected a concussion and about the risk of returning to the ring before fully healed." Therefore, WWE argues, there is no way Singleton could not "plausibly have been harmed" by WWE's alleged fraud by omission - because he never, ever returned to the ring to either train or perform.
WWE's filing noted that they informed Singleton's attorneys of this, yet the claim has not been dropped from subsequent filings.
In the case of Lo Grasso, WWE noted that he, by his own admission in previous filings, "does not allege that he ever approached any WWE employee to report concussion-like symptoms or that any specific WWE employee had knowledge of his condition.” If Lo Grasso did not report any issues, WWE argues, it's impossible that they could have plausibly ignored them or been fraudulent by omission. The WWE filing also noted that Lo Grasso's amended complaint against them does not "include factual allegations that plausibly invoke" continuing the course of the case or any concealment on the part of WWE.
Lo Grasso alleges he was not aware of any issues he was suffering until the year he filed the lawsuit and alleges hearing loss and TMJ due to head trauma suffered over the course of his WWE career. It should be noted that WWE only had Lo Grasso under contract for two years, while he had wrestled from the early 1990s until just a few years ago.
The filing also specifically responded to claims that statements made by WWE management and Dr. Joseph Maroon proved that the company was being fraudulent with their talents.
A March 2015 interview by Dr. Joseph Maroon with the NFL Network could not be held as fraudulent by the plaintiffs because they could not argue that the interview was relied upon by the plaintiffs when it came to how they approached head trauma, especially since the interview took place after the lawsuit was filed. WWE noted that the court had previously dismissed the statement along with the plaintiff's claims of "fraudulent deceit." and that "Dr. Maroon’s statement was an expression of opinion and not a misrepresentation of a past or present fact. WWE wishes to note that there is no allegation, nor could there be, that Dr. Maroon was acting as a representative or spokesman of WWE by appearin on the NFL Network, or that WWE is any way scripted, approved, or even knew of his appearance on the NFL Network. Dr. Maroon is a noted physician with his own opinions regarding that the current state of the science, and nobody expressing a genuinely held opinion is engaged in fraud."
The filing noted, "Indeed, neither Singleton nor LoGrasso could have reasonably relied on Dr. Maroon’s statement
made in 2015 on the NFL Network, after they commenced this lawsuit, and years after they last performed for WWE, to have caused them to re-enter the ring for WWE many years prior to the statement. That is not plausible, but is instead
impossible."
In responding to a claim that a 2007 interview on CNN with Vince and Linda McMahon was proof that WWE management had plausibly been fraudulent with talents regarding head trauma, while Vince, at the time was skeptical (which WWE stated was his opinion in that time frame), Linda noted there was "much to be learned on the subject", which WWE stated, "is precisely the sort of comments the Court correctly concluded “cannot usually support a fraud claim.”
WWE filed the complete transcript of the 2007 interview (as opposed to brief excerpts, which the Plaintiffs had filed with the court) and noted that while Vince McMahon was not specifically skeptical of the science or research behind brain trauma, commented, "from a layman’s standpoint . . . if you’re an 85-year-old and you suffer from dementia, you can’t do what Chris Benoit did for a living. It’s impossible. You can’t function as a normal human being in terms of even getting to the airport to come to work.”
The article also noted that as recently as 3/27/16, an article in The New York Times noted that CTE science "remains in its infancy", showing that even nine years after Vince McMahon stated it was a new science in 2007.
The filing also noted that in no way, did any of the statements from the McMahons or Maroon refer to Lo Grasso or Singleton and that there are no facts connecting those statements to the matter at hand. They noted there are no allegations that WWE had Maroon make statements on the NFL Network to influence professional wrestlers in any way. The filing also noted that neither McMahon "made any statement about when it was safe to return to the ring after a concussion, nor did they suggest or state that it was safe to do so before fully healed."
WWE's filing notes, "In short, there is no allegation that WWE ever rendered treatment to LoGrasso for any alleged head injury for the simplest of reasons ? he never reported a head injury or sought any such treatment. On the contrary, the Court correctly found that LoGrasso “never alleges that he was diagnosed with a concussion during his entire tenure with WWE” and “none of the five named plaintiffs [including LoGrasso] brings any allegation that on any specific date they complained to a specific WWE employee about concussionlike symptoms and were wrongfully diagnosed as having not suffered a concussion or medically cleared to wrestle without adequate rest.”
Lawsuits brought against the company by Billy Jack Hayes, Russ McCullough, Luther Reigns and Ryan Sakoda have been dismissed. Lawsuits brought by the estates of the late Matt Borne and Nelson Frazier Jr. (pka Big Daddy V) are still pending.
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